John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

This is Minister Burke’s first ministerial statement regarding forestry since he assumed the portfolio and I was particularly pleased to hear him mention his and, I sincerely hope, his government’s support for the Gunns project in Tasmania, and I am sure that the member for Lyons would agree with that. In listening to the minister mention the requiring of a sign-off by the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, one can only hope—and I am sure all Australians do, especially those involved in productivity and employment—that that minister will not play around with it and that he will address it at the first opportunity and make it a realistic issue.

The timber industry is vital to regional Australia, and I accept the figures that were read out by the minister just a few moments ago. There are something like 76,000 people directly employed in it. So obviously the timber industry is a very big employer in Australian terms. Last financial year, in 2007-08, Australia imported almost $4½ billion of forest products, the bulk of it, over $3 billion, being pulp and paper products. In that same year we exported $2.471 billion of forest products. Obviously, as we are a country that does not like to import more than we export—of anything, let alone anything to do with agriculture—we need to lift our game in Australia and support our forest industries to address what is for us an incredible trade imbalance in the agricultural sector.

It is unforgivable in my view that we are placing a burden on forests in developing countries, which I am told, in some instances, are illegally logged, because of our desire here in Australia to lock up our native forests. We are leading the world in sustainable forestry management practices and yet we continually lock up our native forests—normally because the Labor Party is chasing green preferences, I think we could say.

For a long time it appeared Minister Burke was asleep at the wheel when it came to his fisheries and forestry portfolio responsibilities. In October last year the coalition determined, through the Senate estimates processes, that Minister Burke and the Labor government had in fact made woeful progress in honouring their election commitments. Despite being in office just shy of 12 months and despite the minister duck-shoving the addressing forestry skills shortage program off to the employment and workplace relations minister—and it is actually being well received and is supported by industry—guidelines for the program had not been developed. Guidelines for boosting the export of forest products had not yet been developed. Guidelines for the program building a forestry industry database had not yet been developed. Guidelines for the program banning the importation of illegally logged timber had not yet been developed. And when it came to the $8 million preparing forest industries for climate change program, there was a draft paper only which was not going to go any further until after the ministerial council in April 2009—six months later!

For a minister who apparently aspires to higher places, this was indeed a scathing report card revealed by Senate estimates, especially coming from someone who was reported as saying that the first year in government is all about implementing government election promises. Minister Burke’s statement today of course seeks to highlight the so-called ‘decisive action’ his government has been taking in this area. But I am sorry that I am going to have to point out that there have been a significant number of low lights for forest industries since Minister Burke took the reins.

We have recently had tabled a Senate inquiry report where the Labor and Greens senators cast doubt on the future of the regional forest agreements, about which the minister just spoke, a recommendation which effectively represents an abandonment of more than a decade of bipartisan support for the RFA process and for the forest industry. I refer to the coalition senators’ dissenting report, which said:

If enacted, this recommendation … would cast uncertainty over the forest sector and put at risk thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of investment.

Not like the Gunns project. It goes on:

This is bad enough at the best of times, but unthinkable in today’s economic climate.

And, off the back of that, we had wild reports from Senator Bob Brown that he was going to attempt an insane deal with this Labor government to end logging in return for the Greens senators’ votes for Labor’s flawed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Senator Brown said he was putting on the table that deal proposing to end logging, yet no-one in the government batted an eyelid. No-one came out, not even Minister Burke, and dismissed that idea. It beggars belief that Labor will not negotiate with the coalition on emissions trading but will happily entertain this Greens nonsense that would gut forestry and see thousands of jobs and millions of investment dollars disappear overnight. Minister Burke and Labor MPs in forestry electorates—the member for Lyons for one—should have been up in arms, but their silence was deafening and their lack of support did not go unnoticed by forestry workers.

The government focus should be on commercial-productive timber plantations and not on taking land out of production in environmental plantings. The current reafforestation rules in the draft CPRS are too complex and bureaucratic and will not encourage substantial new investment in production plantations. Recognition of harvested wood products in the CPRS is the key to getting more production plantations in the ground under that CPRS. I cannot understand how it is claimed that, once a tree is cut down, the carbon locked up in a house made from that tree—or a coffee table or a dining room table—is not stored. This makes no sense and must be addressed by your government, Minister, and by all.

If we need even more evidence of Minister Burke’s haphazard management of his portfolio, let us go to the CPRS fuel scheme. This scheme includes agriculture and fisheries but leaves out forestry, which is the only carbon-positive industry in Australia. Yet it is penalised. Excluding forest contractors from the CPRS fuel scheme means they will not get the same compensation arrangements for extra fuel costs as those in other primary industries. Again, this just beggars belief. It is another attack on forestry by a Labor government which is falsely trying to claim today that it is a friend to this industry.

This ministerial statement in relation to future plantation investment is not as strong and positive as we would like. Continuing to encourage investment and reinvestment in timber plantations is vital to maintaining the international competitiveness of the whole wood products and paper industry. The government and the minister in particular have been extremely quiet on the future of managed investment schemes. The minister did mention these a few moments ago but he must be doing all he can to ensure that the Timbercorp and Great Southern plantations continue to be managed and ultimately are harvested and replanted. The government should also provide certainty about the investment environment for plantations in the future, not just let the process run its course.

I believe the minister has a responsibility to stand up for the industry and to not only promote it but also defend it against extremists. I believe that the minister has failed to do this, and I suspect it has a lot to do with his former involvement with the Wilderness Society, of which he was an active member, campaigning on issues such as preserving the Daintree rainforest. I cannot understand why the minister has sat idly by whilst over a thousand jobs in one of the most drought affected regions in Australia—Deniliquin, in south-western New South Wales—were placed in jeopardy by his colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, the same person we are relying upon to okay the Gunns project. Virtually on his own this minister has put at risk a thousand jobs in Deniliquin. The minister for the environment tried to stop logging in the central Murray red gum forests by claiming a parrot, namely the superb parrot, was under threat. This is not a threatened species, but it is so to the minister for the environment. I have spoken personally to timber millers in this region and they are disgusted and dismayed by the government’s action. It is very telling that the minister at the table, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, has never commented on that issue.

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